Why You Should Wear Shoes in Hotel Rooms

Caroline was happy to get back home after being gone for a week

and a half. She ran right to her jeep in the garage for some play time!

In front of the Avenue of Trees at Boone Hall.

(Mom, this is where Patrick Swazye gallopped to Mont Royal! I could

almost hear the theme music to North and South!)

Roy and Caroline in front of Boone Hall

Our family outside Boone Hall on the Avenue of Trees!

Roy and Elton John. (Caroline found these sunglassses at my

Mom's house and she loves them!).

Outside Drayton Hall Plantation.

Caroline and Roy outside our hotel on a HOT day!

Learning to swim at the hotel pool! By the next day, she was doing

a pose she calls "the Mermaid" all by herself.

Roy suprised me last Friday and told me to come back from my parent's house a day early because he had a suprise get-a-way planned for us before he left for Alaska. So, Caroline and I left Virginia on Sunday morning, drove to Charlotte, met Roy at Panera for lunch and then returned home to repack and grab a few things. By 3:00 we were off to our secret destination. I figured it was either Charleston or the beach, because it had to be somewhere nearby. Once we got on the interstate towards Charleston, he told me that we were going there! Charleston has always been special to us because we spent our first anniversary there, so I was very excited! We got into the city just in time to unload at our hotel and go to dinner and then we all went to bed at 8:45 because we were so tired! Well, I woke up at 12:45 to Caroline coughing/gagging in her pack-and-play. I recognized the sound...it's the sound she made before she threw up in my parent's kitchen 2 days before. I walked over to her bed, picked her up and she threw up all over the carpet. YUCK! I told Roy to turn on the lamp, which he did, right before she performed an encore, this time all over me and her. I carried her into the bathroom and tried to explain to my groggy two year old to throw up into the toilet if she had to do it again, at the same time realizing that I was holding a piece of shrimp in my left hand from her meal a few hours earlier! Again, yuck. Anyway, I cleaned her up, stripped out of my pajamas and then went to clean up the carpet. Hot water and washcloths were all I had to clean up the mess, and believe me, I scrubbed. As I was cleaning, I mentioned to Roy that you never know what happens in hotel rooms, hence the title of the post. The rest of the time there, I wore my flip flops whenever I walked in the room! Needless to say, Caroline slept in our bed that night. At one point in the night, I looked up and saw Roy on one edge of the King sized bed and me on the other. Caroline was laying horizontally with her feet on Roy's chest and her head by my side. We agreed that the cute idea of sleeping with your kids is overrated!

Anyway, the rest of the trip was great! Caroline learned how to swim by herself in the hotel pool (with floaties, of course), we went on a carriage ride through the city, visited 2 beautiful plantations in 105 heat index weather, took naps, and just had fun being a family.

One of the plantations we went to was Boone Hall. They have used this house in movies like North and South (I got pictures for you, Mom!), and the Notebook. It was a beautiful plantation and the trees leading to the house were unreal.

We even ventured to take Caroline to a 5-star restaurant! High Cotton is one of our favorites in Charleston and Roy wanted to eat there one night. The thought of bringing Caroline there scared me, but we got there at 5:30 to beat the dinner crowd and got some strange stares from other diners, especially when we walked in the lobby with the stroller. You know that children aren't really encouraged when it says "children's menu available upon request". Caroline was actually pretty good, but I was on pins and needles the entire time because I was so nervous that we were going to ruin someone's meal. I think next time we'll go there alone so we can enjoy our meal!

All in all, the trip was wonderful and well needed! Roy did a great job! For some reason, I can only upload my pictures before my posts instead of after. I don't know how to get them to come after and it's frustrating!! I have more pictures on my flickr badge up to the left.